Household pets often compete for food. Domestic animals, such as cats, often crowd around feeding dishes at feeding times. Larger, more dominant cats may consume too much food, while preventing other cats from eating enough food. Dominant behavior by one cat at feeding time may cause significant stress in other cats. Cats may engage in competitive eating, further increasing their stress. Some cats may require special diets or prescription foods, while other pets in the household may not. Feeding multiple cats multiple different types of cat food while preventing other cats from eating unintended food is frequently a time-consuming chore. Pet owners may prefer to avoid the consequences of increased stress in their cats, which may include illness and unwanted behaviors by the cats. Pet owners may also feel anxiety regarding their cats' access to food. Owners may worry about one cat eating too much food and also worry that other cats are not getting enough food. Owners may feel especially strong anxiety regarding their cats' access to food while the owner is away from the home or otherwise unable to attend to the cats' feeding.
Existing animal feeders for multiple pet households restrict access to food to specific cats and specific dishes, so that only the intended cat has access to intended food stored in a specific dish intended for that cat. Existing feeders may restrict access by opening upon detection of one cat and by closing upon detection of another cat within a specified proximity. Existing feeders may restrict access by presenting an opening large enough for only one animal to enter the feeding area, thereby limiting access to specific food to a specific cat. Existing feeders may comprise several food repositories located in one base, into which different types of food may be placed, and may provide access to the different containers only upon certain conditions. Such feeders may use a rotating lid that moves between the various food repositories, alternately allowing access to one repository and not the others, depending on the position of the lid.
Existing animal feeders allow users to detect if the feeder is functional while the user is away from the home by connecting the feeder to a telephone line through a telephone answering machine, and disconnecting the answering machine if the feeder malfunctions or if the feeder detects that food levels have reached a specified level. If the user telephones the number associated with the answering machine, the failure of the answering machine to answer indicates to the user that the feeder has malfunctioned or is empty.
Existing animal feeders do not prevent one cat from pushing aside the intended cat from the intended cat's dish, thereby preventing the intended cat or both cats from eating. Feeders that permit entry to the food container through a space just large enough for one cat do not prevent another cat from interfering with the first cat while the first cat is attempting to enter the feeder and/or feed from it. For example, the interfering cat may block the entrance to the feeder. Feeders that contain multiple compartments and a lid that rotates, providing access to certain compartments to certain cats, do not prevent one cat from interfering with another cat's feeding. Feeders that open upon detection of a first cat and that close when another cat is detected do not prevent the other cat from physically pushing the first cat away from the feeder, thereby potentially depriving both cats of the food.
Existing feeders do not actively alleviate remote users' anxiety regarding their cat's feeding, because they do not communicate with a remote user to notify the user of successful cat feeding events. Rather, existing feeders require the user to initiate the contact with the feeder by making a telephone call. Also, existing feeders that depend on a sensor to detect food or water levels inside the food or water compartments of the feeder create another opportunity for a failure in the feeding system, where the sensor may malfunction or misread the food or water level. In particular, wet cat food may obscure the sensor or cause a sensor to report that the container is full when in fact the container is substantially empty but a small amount of wet food has adhered to the sensor, effectively spoofing the sensor. Existing feeders may therefore lead the user to incorrectly believe the feeder has malfunctioned, when in fact just the answering machine has malfunctioned or the power supply to the answering machine has failed, thereby increasing user anxiety. Existing feeders may similarly lead a user to falsely believe the feeder is functioning correctly, when in fact the feeder is substantially empty or has malfunctioned.
Issues associated with existing feeders are exacerbated by their use in multiple pet households. For example, different existing feeders may be used to feed multiple cats, but each feeder must be configured and programmed individually. This would be time consuming if the user attempted to separate the additional feeders by a distance sufficient to prevent cats from interfering with each other's feeding. Since animal feeders are typically located on the floor, users would have to stoop to the level of the feeder for protracted lengths of time to program and configure the feeders, in addition to the time spent loading the feeders with food and/or water. Alternately, users must lift feeders potentially full of cat food and/or water, increasing the chance of spilling cat food or water. Thus, it becomes increasingly likely a user would stop using a set of existing different feeders effectively, further increasing their frustration and anxiety.
A cat may become accustomed to feeding at regular intervals. These feeding times may be dictated by the cat owner's schedule. Cats seem to anticipate their feeding time and disturb owners some time, frequently an hour or more, before the scheduled feeding time. Pets may undergo stress when they are not fed at their expected times, and may irritate their owners. Cat owners who are unable to attend to their cats for lengths of time greater than the time across several feedings frequently recruit others to feed and/or monitor their cats.
Therefore, attempts are constantly being made to improve animal feeding systems to ensure multiple animals receive the intended amount of food, and to reduce the anxiety of animal owners regarding the feeding of their animals.